Tackling arson: Educational initiatives

Streetwise/Crucial Crews

This scheme has been adopted by a number of brigades nationally; for example, Northumbria and Lancashire.

The Crucial Crew involves bringing a year 6 class onto the Fire Station for a series of four workshops based around fire safety and the consequences of hoax calls. The children meet operational fire fighters and are shown around the appliances. This is regarded as an important scheme for breaking down barriers that have developed between fire fighters and the local community, especially children and young people.

Contact Point:

Juvenile Fire-setter schemes

Juvenile Fire-setter schemes have been introduced by most fire brigades in the UK as part of long term strategies to combat arson. At present, schemes in the UK fall into four categories:

1. Schemes which follow the Merseyside Fire Awareness Child Education (FACE) system

This scheme consists of:

• Preliminary advice to the parent or carer by phone on fire safety precautions

• A home visit by a ‘Fire Friend’ to determine the child’s attitude towards fire. Ordinarily, this would be the only home visit by the ‘Fire Friend’, to avoid building a dependant relationship with the child or their family.

• Photographs of a burnt out house can be shown, and have a story created around them.

• The child is then given projects to complete (colouring, spot the difference, questionnaires and so on) designed to promote awareness of fire safety issues. These projects are also provided for other children in the family.

• The child is told that their parent will contact the ‘Fire Friend’ to advise of their progress.

• Once the child has completed the projects, and their fire play is deemed to have stopped, a visit to the fire station is arranged. The child is told that the ‘Fire Friend’ will still occasionally contact their parents to make sure everything is alright.

The scheme stresses the importance of developing a multi-agency network to deal with the problem. The services of other agencies within the network may be called on if the problem is felt to be more complex. The main focus of the scheme is education.

2. The scheme advocated by Muckley (1997):

This scheme encourages brigades to determine the type of fire-setter being referred before deciding which agencies should be contacted, if any, and what intervention should occur. Two-day training courses are provided for staff involved in the scheme and a manual has been devised to help brigades to assess the typology of the fire-setter. Usually the parents receive fire safety advice while the fire-setter receives basic education. Intervention may, however, vary depending on the type of fire-setter classified.

The main focus of this scheme is counselling.

3. In-house Schemes

A number of brigades have reported that they run an in-house scheme that has been developed internally. Key elements of the schemes vary between each brigade and the elements change depending on individual case officers and individual fire-setters seen. There are a great variety of practices in in-house schemes but mainly consisting of:

• The main element is fire safety education rather than counselling

• Developing a rapport with the child

• Educating the parents/guardians as well as the child

• Educating the child to the dangers of fire and also its potential uses as an important element of life

• The child is encouraged to take a responsible attitude towards fire safety

• There is no lighting of fires

• Very rarely any assessment of the fire-setter

4. Combination Schemes

These schemes are a combination of elements of Muckley and elements of FACE with some in-house adaptations. The exact mix varies from scheme to scheme.

The elements of combination schemes consist of:

• Classification of the fire-setter using the Muckley method

• Using FACE based projects and photographs

• Using ‘fire friends’

• Imparting fire safety education

• Educating the parents/guardians as well as the fire-setter

Case examples

Young Offenders – West Yorkshire Fire Service

Fire Awareness programmes are jointly managed an evaluated by the Fire Serve and Youth Offending Teams, and support offenders undertaking a wide range of judicial orders including final warnings, action plans and supervision orders. Courses have also been carried out with offenders who are in danger of committing arson including those involved in vehicle related offences. Recidivism is monitored by the Youth Offending Team in relation to their performance indicators.

The brigade is currently developing programmes to support Reparation Orders in conjunction with the Youth Offending Teams. Where the fire service are deemed the victim of crime, officers will be involved in the victim/offender mediation process.

Contact: Richard Brabb, Station Officer, Community Fire Safety, Fire Brigade Headquarters, Oakroyd Hall, Birkenshaw, BD11 2DY (Tel No. 01274 750403)

Assessing fire-setter typologies - Tyne and Wear Metropolitan Fire Brigade

Tyne and Wear Fire Brigade are currently further developing the Muckley scheme in partnership with the Kolvin Clinic, a Northern Forensic Mental Health Service for Young People. The clinic accepts referrals from throughout the country and will specifically address fire setting behaviour. Training in assessment techniques is provided for fire brigade personnel by the clinic.

Contact: Graham Shiel, Senior Divisional Officer, Brigade Headquarters, PO Box 1HR, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE99 1HR, (Tel No 0191 2321224)

Offenders with Custodial Sentences – West Yorkshire Fire Service

This programme is designed to address the needs of offenders who have been given custodial sentences for their arson offences. Programmes have been formulated in conjunction with psychologists to be delivered to both adults and young people in prisons, Youth Offenders Institutions and Regional Secure Units. Programmes are currently being developed to support work undertaken in Attendance Centres.

The brigade has also developed courses dealing with the consequences of crime and victim awareness. These courses have been developed with prison psychologists and support current prison rehabilitation programmes.

Officers involved in all these programmes have undertaken external education to improve and develop their counselling skills.

Contact:

Teachers Resource Pack – Northern Ireland Fire Brigade

The brigade is currently introducing an arson awareness initiative in partnership with The Association of Northern Ireland Education and Library Boards and Zurich insurance. A teacher’s resource pack is to be provided to every primary school in the province. The pack contains class and home based work activities on the theme of arson but is delivered by the teacher as part of the school curriculum. Members of the behavioural support team of the Education and Library Board have designed the material, and arson is discussed with upper Key Stage 2 children (10 and 11 years old) in a structured and programmed way.

The contents of the pack are free from copyright and are suitable for use throughout the UK.

Contact: Brian Gough, Divisional Officer, Southern Area Headquarters, Thomas Street, Portadown, BT 62 3AH

Tel: 028 3833 222

Theatre Production – West Yorkshire Fire Service

A professional theatre company has been employed, in collaboration with an adjoining brigade, to deliver a themed play to selected schools within the county. The targeted age group was 12 to 14. The play covered aspects of arson and hoax calls and was aimed at schools located within station areas suffering a high incidence of malicious fire setting. This required financial resources of £12,000, which was shared equally between each brigade.

The play was also delivered to youths serving a custodial sentence in a Regional Secure Unit.

Contact: